Camino Real (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Thomas Lanier Williams
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Plot: Expressionist
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: An unnamed Latin American country
- Principal Characters: Gutman, Kilroy, Casanova, Lord Mulligan, Lady Mulligan, First Street Cleaner , Second Street Cleaner, The Gypsy, Esmeralda, Don Quixote, Lord Byron, Jacques, Baron de Charlus
- Genres: Drama, Allegory, Expressionist literature
- Subjects: Alienation, Existentialism, Life, philosophy of, Life and death, Allusions, Self-revelations
- Locales: Latin America
The Play
Camino Real is an untraditional play. An innocent stranger, Kilroy, arrives in the town of Camino Real only to be tempted by the lures of its degradations—including prostitutes hanging out of windows—a world where he is promptly robbed, beaten, and left for dead. Yet it is the character of Gutman, the expatriate, bellowing out the window and announcing stage changes like a surreal town crier, who breaks down the play’s imaginary fourth wall and invites the audience to consider the true horror: This is no “play,” no predictable...
[The entire page is 2475 words long]
